Archive for June, 2010

Bladeless fans, jackets that function like mobile homes, good-looking toilets, chairs made with zippers and coconut fibers, a guy in espadrilles . . . these were the more exciting things I encountered at the Dwell on Design show at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend, but I have to say, I had hoped for more.

The most excitement I saw anywhere on the showroom floor was among men who were ecstatic about a showerhead mirror combo. Not exactly the killer app I was imagining. Lots of people seemed to be charmed by the “afro toilet brushes” (yes, a toilet brush that looks like a PERSON with an afro). I guess these people are a bit less PC than I thought they’d be . . .

I let a design-savvy friend of mine know that I was pretty disappointed — no aha! moments exactly — and she said, “Yeah, Dwell covers what’s now, but they don’t do tomorrow.” Who does, I asked? She muttered, “Wouldn’t that be nice to know,” but I think she was holding out on me.

On the upside, the place was full of surprisingly happy hipsters: guys who seemed comfortable with their metrosexuality (note the espadrilles) and scrawny women wearing comfy flats and, well, barely anything else, despite the frigid air conditioning. I figured they were fleeing muggy studios in Silver Lake.

The seminars were well-attended: I could barely get a seat at a panel on sustainable landscaping in LA (at least 75% of the audience was female.) It was brief but informative: one thing I learned that I now feel I should have already known is that, among the sustainable living evangelists among us, we must include the libertarians and Tea Party types who are desperate to get off the grid. These people are anything but your Obama-loving Prius drivers. They despise big government and they plant drought resistant plants so that they can more easily disconnect from city water services, and, by extension, “The Man.” Some of them are surely getting ready for the second coming, and if you want to join them, better pull up that lawn.

I really enjoyed Virginia Heffernan’s piece in the New York Times Magazine today about our presumptions about the “realism” of high-definition TV. While we assume that the latest technology takes us ever closer to capturing reality as it is really is (whatever that means), it’s easy for us to forget that every technology has implicit within it certain formal devices and material dimensions that dictate its method of representation. In the unfortunate case of HDTV, humans look shinier, blotchier, and more garish and crinkled than in old-school TV. VHeff mentions that darker skin tends to look a lot better on HDTV: who knows — perhaps people of African, Hispanic, Arab and Asian decent will finally catch a break on American TV.

Her article reminded me of an interesting session I attended at the New Media Consortium this month. Case Western Reserve University has been very active in Second Life, including building spaces for personel from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to test their skills dealing with patients. One of the more surprising problems they discovered was that it’s very difficult to create middle-aged (let alone geriatric) avatars in Second Life. Most people in Second Life want to project an idealized version of themselves into this virtual world. When Case Western took on a project for an institute that counsels patients on bariatric (stomach shrinking) surgery, the artists working in-world discovered that you can’t really make fat avatars either.

It reminded me about why I’m so interested in virtual worlds: because they are mediated spaces of representation, they are among the best places in the world to see our presuppositions about the world unveiled. Fantasy worlds like Second Life are built with a set of implicit values that reveal a great deal about our ideology of beauty. While it may not be surprising that people don’t want to look fat or old, there’s something chilling about the fact that people couldn’t do it even if they tried. Case Western is hiring some kick-ass “sculptors” to create some truly obese avatars, but most people in-world don’t have the chops to create them, nor the inclination to do so. As virtual worlds become more pervasive in our culture (and I believe this is inevitable), what will be the implications of the fact that our fantasy worlds will implicitly outlaw certain types of human bodies? Will there be a backlash which makes non-idealized bodies the most coveted bodies? And what impact will the taste economy in a virtual world have on the real world? The one thing I can guarantee you is that the border between will become more and more porous. Right now, I’m not looking forward to the day that we will be able to see in HD.

I can’t say how tickled I was to discover (thank you Google Alerts!) that I’d been designated “Lady Geek of the Week” by Being Geek Chic. In their charming post about my TED.com talk on fashion and copyright, they did a great job summarizing the spirit of the talk:

Key takeaway points here for the average lady geek: Imitation is a true form of flattery, sure, but what should inspire us more is that by sharing the collective knowledge of the creative giants and encouraging the spirit of reinvention, we can push our products, food, tattoos, comedy, websites, video, writing to improve the whole. Furthermore, it pushes us harder to create without boundaries and seek ways to truly make our idea stand out as it’s own – completely unique.

I was late to discover my inner-geek: it wasn’t until I was in graduate school when I was forced to be a teaching assistant for a huge science fiction class. I actually protested to the department, begging them to find me another post. But the second I wrapped my hot little hands around Neuromancer, I knew that I’d found my thrill. Science fiction — cyberpunk fiction, in particular — helped me more fully imagine the intensely mediated new world that I knew was around the corner. After that course, which was in 1991 (gasp!), I became obsessed with digital technology, eventually building Web sites and teaching a course about how to use the Web as a research tool (that was in 1995).

Anyway, cheers to the geeks! And a special toast to the lady geeks: there’s too few of us.

Incredible! Thanks to the folks on dotSUB my TED.com talk on fashion and copyright has been translated into 12 languages including Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, French, Hebrew, Hungarian, Portuguese and Spanish. We’ve been waiting a long time for really good translation software to come along, but good samaritans are filling the void.

I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of “cultural translators,” people who donate their time in order to make a vast array of online content comprehensible to new audiences around the word. These people are bridge-builders. It’s a shame that Americans lack incentives to learn foreign languages (we can get by with English in most professions and in most places in the world), but thank heaven for those intrepid multilingual fans and enthusiasts. We’re all indebted to you.

Narrating Behavior Change

It was exhilarating to participate in a five-day workshop in Mexico City hosted by the World Bank. Researchers, media makers and development experts from 15 countries shared knowledge about entertainment education techniques and worked together to develop new behavior change campaigns across Africa and South America. Find out more.

Fashion & Politics

Does fashion play a role in politics? You betcha! But all the fashion rules are turned on their head in a world where having a signature style can make you a target for derision. I had a lot of fun talking to Esquire about who's deviated from the uniform (e.g., Bernie) and why.
Find out more.

ONA LONDON

I'll be crossing the pond to attend the Online News Association's conference in London, March 6, 2015. The focus is on mobile and so I'll be presenting the Media Impact Project's latest how-to guide on Mobile Metrics. Find out more about
the session
.

Social Media in India

A big highlight of my year was a trip to India to speak at
APOGEE, a technical extravaganza including over 6000 students, 100 colleges, and 80 technical events at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani. I was joined by a star-studded crew, including Mansoor Khan, a titan of the Indian Film Industry, and Dr. Walter Lewin, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the MIT. Check out the
video of my talk on the social impact of social media in India, where digital social networking is booming (especially among women). Find out more about the event
here.

Mission Creek Festival

I'm very excited to keynote the Innovation Conference at the Mission Creek Festival, a wonderful music, film, lit and food fest that takes over the entirety of Iowa City. I'll be talking about Technologies of Taste and the impact of recommendation systems. Headliners include great indie bands like Real Estate, Foxygen and the clever Father John Misty, along with literary superstars like Lorrie Moore and that quirky Ander Monson. Join us March 31 - April 5!
Find out more.

Pop Culture & Science

Last Fall, I attended a timely workshop at MIT on
The Evolving Culture of Science Engagement. Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Culture Kettle, we explored how popular culture helps frame, inform and distort our understanding of science. Read the report.

Real Food Media Contest

I had so much fun juding the Real Food Media Contest last year that I'm doing it again. And I'm thrilled to see that Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Jamie Oliver, Michael Pollen, Eric Schlosser, and Alice Waters have signed on as well. We’ll be looking for short films that tell great stories about sustainable food and farming:
Check out the finalists and vote for your favorite..

On The Media

I met Bob Garfield, host of NPR's popular program "On The Media," at a terrific conference hosted by TTI/Vanguard, where both of us gave talks on some big problems in the media industry. Afterward, Bob interviewed me about Netflix's data-driven decision to produce the edgy "Orange is the New Black," and included it in an episode called "Dare to Stream.".

LEAP Symposium @ Art Center

I'm a huge fan of Art Center's Designmatters program and so there was no way I was going to miss their LEAP Symposium, which brought together over 100 national thought-leaders working at the intersection of design and social innovation. With IDEO's Jocelyn Wyatt and frog's Robert Fabricant in the room, it was bound to be great. A report has been published in Design Principles and Practices: just let me know if you want a copy ;-)

Imaging War: The Primetime War on Terror

This year Drexel University will devote its Great Works Symposium to the matter of media -- specifically, how we generate images of war. I'm excited to be giving a lecture on November 5 about my research on how the War on Terror is depicted in the most popular dramas on television. Check out the video and the full report. The findings might surprise you.

Championing Women & Diversity in the Media Business

I was thrilled to join Gail Berman, the first and only female executive to hold the top posts at both a major film studio and television network, and Jacqueline Hernandez, COO of Telemundo, to talk about the importance of diversity in media organizations. This event was co-sponsored by Ms. Magazine and USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. Watch the video.
Find out more.

Women Empowered at Cognizant

I'm flattered to have been invited back again to be the featured speaker at another Women Empowered event sponsored by Cognizant, a global IT services company that is taking gender diversity in the workplace very seriously. I'll be talking about social media and the need to recruit women in technology industries at the Computer History Museum March 4. Joining me in the conversation will be UT Austin's Tricia Berry, Fizziology COO Jen Handley and Cognizant's Ben Pring.
Find out more and register here.

TED Radio Hour

Guy Raz interviewed me about the culture of copying in the fashion industry in what he called “maybe our best show ever.” The show included one of my all-time faves, Steven Johnson, and Mark Ronson, who produced such inspired work with Amy Winehouse (may she rest in peace).
Check it out!.

My TED Talks

TEDxUSC: Lessons From Fashion’s Free Culture

I was extremely proud when TED.com picked up this talk that I delivered at TEDxUSC, the site of the first TEDx in the world. My talk focuses on the fascinating culture of creativity in the fashion industry, where copying is actually legal.

TEDWomen: Social Media & the End of Gender

I was very proud to share the stage with Madeleine Albright, Eve Ensler, Donna Karan, Sheryl Sandberg and a slew of other impressive speakers at the inaugural TEDWomen. My topic here? Social Media & the End of Gender.

TEDxOC: The Politics of Personal Taste

My fifth talk for the TED network is based on one of my favorite research projects at the Norman Lear Center. It was a special pleasure to speak at the stunning Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, California.
Watch the video
.

TEDxPHX: Can Movies Really Change People?

Here's my most recent talk which is about how movies can have a measurable impact on people's knowledge and beliefs.

Follow me on Twitter

Fashion & The Creative Commons of Color

Anyone who knows me will realize immediately that I would not be able to resist an event called "Color Lust." I am thrilled to be the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary summit of the Color Marketing Group, which, probably unbeknownst to you, plays a role in determining the color of your furniture, your car upholstery, your nail polish . . . you name it. I'll be speaking about fashion and the ownership of color on October 28 in luscious art deco Miami!
Find out more.

TED Ads Worth Spreading

I was very proud to be a part of TED's Ads Worth Spreading challenge - an effort to acknowledge the power of advertising and to encourage those who wield that power to do something good with it. I was teamed up with
Kenzo Digital, a new media wunderkind (and an all around nice guy) to identify ad campaigns that touch a cultural nerve; ads that capture or catalyze a cultural movement, moment or event. You can check out the winners here!

Gastronomy & Technology in Barcelona

It's a techie foodie delight! I'll be delivering the keynote presentation during Gastronomy & Technology Days in Barcelona, October 18. Sponsored by the most famous chef in the world, Ferran Adria, and Telefonica, the biggest telecom company in Spain, this event will bring together people exploring the intersection between new technology and food.

Making Media Now

The Filmmakers Collaborative has asked me to speak about media-fueled impact at the Making Media Now conference at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design on June 8. My panel will discuss how cross-platform media and partnerships with NGOs, government and corporations can create measurable impact."
Find out more.